


Ophidian Like Me

by karrenia_rune



Category: Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling
Genre: Gen, POV Animal, Pre-Series, character introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-31
Updated: 2011-01-31
Packaged: 2017-10-15 06:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the tin; a character study of Kaa</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ophidian Like Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



Disclaimer: The Jungle Book and all of the characters who appear here or are mentioned were inspired by the original creations of Rudyard Kipling and do not belong to me. They are only 'borrowed' for the purposes of the story.

“Ophidian Like Me”

As you may or may not be aware there are many tribes in the jungle; you might very well term it a caprice, or arrogance, but of all the Tribes of the Jungle; the Tribe of the Snake is the most unique.

For the Snake Tribe is the tribe of the light and shadow on your skin; the tribe the lives, eats, and breathes most closely the Law of the Jungle laid down in the Elder Days when the world was new and our very first ancestors came into being and took the Jungle as our home.

We preceded the great grey wolves, the tigers, the panthers, bears, and even, yes, the lowly hyena. For, he, as everyone knows is a born sycophant; but can we fault a creature whose nature is ingrained in the fabric of his being? Nay, I cannot, nor can you.

Even a sycophant can have redeeming qualities that may or may not be apparent on the surface.

But I digress, for the river of time flows on and one must learn to navigate those turbulent passages or risk being pulled under. Every tribe in the jungle more than likely has its own tale of how their kind came into being, and beyond more than a shadow of a doubt their stories are true to them and their nature, passed down orally from father, mother, or what not to their offspring as a truth. It is just that: a truth, but not the truth.

While I am quite aware the preempting other tribes is certainly not the only criteria for assumption of place; it is certainly a valid one.

We are the most equipped for survival. We shed our skin we it is old and worn-out and no longer serviceable. And some may argue that lacking limbs and such that somehow that is a drawback, but I, for one, would argue otherwise.

We crawl on our bellies most closely in tune with the earth which is mother and a source of sustenance to us all, and while it has, eccentrically, I might add, occurred to me from time to time that limbs such as hands might well be useful to those of our kind; it quickly subsides. We are Ophidians, snakes, and I began this as a means of expressing why I, Ka’a, feel that the Tribe of the Snake is, well, in a word, most suitable, most equipped to survive.

Even as I curl here around the trunk of a great, branching banyan tree, basking in the triangular slanting rays of sunlight as I tell these things to you, my most recently hatched offspring you would no doubt argue that mere survival is not enough; that there must be more to living. And I say to you: you are most correct.

"Living is a rare and precious thing, it is like a home, and while the great grey wolves claim that they carry the history of their people in their heads, and like ours transmit those stories and lore from parent to child as we do, it is the living and even the dying; the loving and the hating, and every experience whether good, bad or indifferent that populate that home and make it one’s own.

“But Master Kaa, by what means can we know whether the experiences are one of the three you mentioned?” asked a young snakeling and as their instructor glanced around the semi-circle of eager young faces he came to a realization: had he ever been that young, that eager? Assuredly so, but it had been a very long time ago.

Ka~a shrugged, or rather the serpentine equivalent of one, causing the tightly coiled ropy muscles underneath his leathery skin to ripple like still waters in a reflecting pound, glancing all around in every direction of the columned clearing before he answered the young one’s question.

“I cannot answer that, you must experience whatever comes your way, and then seek counsel of your fellows, or other jungle dwellers and make your own determination. I have heard it said that no one is ever told what will happen.”

“I don’t understand?” griped another young snakeling.

“Exactly, that is why you must live, and thus learn by do so,” replied Kaa with a languid flip of his tail-end before he flipped over on his stomach to resuming basking in the sunlight for as long as it remained in this particular clearing. He realized that basking in the sun was a good thing; it warmed the sluggish cool blood and heated up his skin. “That is all for today; be off with you.” He replied.

The young ones did as they were bidden and Kaa was left alone on his sun-dappled branch. “Aah” he rasped.

It was good to be alive and a member of the Snake Tribe.


End file.
